


Stockings Hung At The Palmwoods With Care

by Liliako



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: Beaches, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Feelings, M/M, Schmoop, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 01:58:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4985623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liliako/pseuds/Liliako
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas Eve and the boys are stuck in L.A.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stockings Hung At The Palmwoods With Care

_T’was the night before Christmas and all through 2J not a boy-band-er was stirring, not even Carlitos._

The boys sat grumpily on the couch, be-decked in the ugliest Christmas sweaters they could find. Despite their best efforts, their Palmwoods holiday party had failed, ugly sweater theme abandoned, but they didn’t seem to care.

“This sucks,” Kendall said, and the boys had to agree, because what was a Christmas without a real tree?

“I’m so bored,” Carlos whined, tugging at the strand of yarn from the bottom of James’ sweater. James batted his hand away, but Carlos was persistent in his goal of unraveling the ugly polar bear sweater and so, as always, James tackled Carlos off the couch and they rolled on the floor. James finally got Carlos pinned under him, sitting on his stomach, and James was almost maniacally beginning to unravel Carlos’s giant reindeer sweater.

“How do you like it, bitch?” James crowed in triumph as what they had all assumed was Rudolph’s red nose devolved back into yarn.

“Bring it on!” Carlos yelled back, yanking savagely and the innocent polar bear was now missing its toes.

Logan, who had gotten up to make cocoa because as soon as Carlos said ‘bored’ he knew something like this had been bound to happen, sat back down next to Kendall. He handed over a penguin mug to match the big, slightly deformed penguin on Kendall’s sweater.

“This is better than ‘ _It’s A Wonderful Life’_ ,” Kendall observed, clinking his mug with Logan’s, who also had a mug to match the large disproportional snowman on his own sweater.

“Question is, how does it compare to the _Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer_ TV special?”

“No, that’s a whole other category, like you couldn’t compare this,” Kendall motioned at James and Carlos, each now missing at least a good third of their respective sweaters, getting tangled in the loose brightly colored yarn and both attempting to chew their way free of what appeared to be a Cat’s Cradle between their faces. “To _How The Grinch Stole Christmas_.”

“Live action, stop motion, and animation, I see your categories and raise you the morals and thematic elements of each movie.”

“Well, then it’d obviously be the _Grinch_ , since they’re being miserable to deal with now but will be fine once Katie tells them to knock it off because they’re ruining her Christmas cheer.”

“If by cheer you mean her enjoying the cash from her flavored eggnog sales, then you’re right.”

“Think we could get her to put her hair up like Cindy Lou Who?”

“Doubtful unless you’ve got 20 bucks you’re willing to part with.”

Carlos and James appeared to have hit a snag in their sweater destroying plans, as they each reached the unraveling point just under their armpits. There was much yanking and pulling and grunting and cursing but the sweaters would not unravel further.

“What the hell?!” Carlos yelled in frustration, “This yarn is, like, evil or magical or something!”

“My perfect washboard abs are getting cold and it is _all your fault_!” James retaliated and they rolled around a bit more, yarn winding around them until they somehow managed to be tied up back to back.

“You and your stupid abs. This is all _your_ fault!”

“OW! Don’t pinch me! Take that you-“

“Augh! Man, Super Pinches are _not_ allowed!”

“Ow-ow-ow-ow! You’re not a crab! Stop pinching me repeatedly!!”

“Logan, make him stop!” “Kendall, make him stop!”

“Time out!” Kendall hollered over the fight and the whiny pleas for help. “Guys, just because we’re stuck in L.A. for Christmas doesn’t mean we can’t still have fun,” Kendall began one of his classic inspiring speeches, but James and Carlos merely looked flatly at him and held up the mess of yarn they were tangled in.

“Not fun,” They grumbled in unison.

“Plenty of people live here and they survive without the snow and the real pine trees and it being cold enough to warrant the need for hot chocolate,” Kendall was beginning to depress himself so he changed tactics quickly. “A lot of people come here for vacation! We should be thankful for the opportunity to stay here and sing at the Rocque Records Christmas Party, despite it being the worst party ever because it was filled with old people while Dak Zevon got to go to his hometown and give a special concert, AND despite how we tried to have a really awesome party ourselves but didn’t know that everyone else had plans for the night.”

“I can’t believe Katie actually wanted to go to see The Nutcracker with your mom and Buddha Bob,” Carlos said, trying again to chew his way through thick yarn to freedom.

“She takes bets with the ushers on if any of the little kid dancers will fall and if the Mouse King dancer will decide it’s time to run off with the Sugar Plum Fairy. She takes twenty five percent of all bets so she makes money either way,” Kendall sighed.

“Was she old enough to run a betting pool the time you guys went to New York for Christmas?” James asked, spraying a random Cuda product on one of the bits of yarn in his reach.

“Doubt it, but it was hilarious to see her get scared by all the fake Santas, tourists can be crazy.”

“Imagine all the tourists on the boardwalk here, man that’s got to be crazy. I wonder if they’re all over the beaches right now,” Logan said offhandedly as he began to yarn ball the first loose end he came in contact with, pushing Carlos and James as far apart at they could be in hopes to ease the detangling process.

“The beach… There’s only one way to find out-- Let’s go!” The three boys each gave Kendall their own skeptical look, but Carlos’s edged more on hopeful. “C’mon, even if there are people on the regular parts there’s always Griffins private beach!”

“Kendall, we’re not supposed to go there ever. Or the sharks will come up on the land and eat us, remember?” Logan nudged around one of Carlos’s arms and looped over James’s head with his new yarn ball.

“And that’s only after the attack llamas,” Carlos pointed out while trying to wiggle away from James with no luck.

“Anything is better than being stuck here at the Palmwoods with nothing to do,” James said as he tried valiantly to swish his hair out of his face.

And so Logan yarn balled Carlos and James out of their predicament, they all put on different shirts because ugly Christmas sweaters aren’t as funny when there are only two of them, and off to the beach they went at a ridiculous hour of the night.

\--------

“WOOHOO! It’s already Christmas in China, I’m gonna dig myself a tunnel and go there!” Carlos shouted joyfully and began furiously digging a hole in the sand.

“Stupid, no you couldn’t. Even if you could get through the molten core of the Earth, China’s probably not where we’d end up. Eurasia, yes, sure, but because we’re not directly across from China-” Logan informed Carlos as he set about trying to make a sand Arthurian style castle of legend.

“Yes I can! Haven’t you ever seen that movie about going to the center of the Earth?”

“No,” Logan said flatly.

“Neither have I but the trailer didn’t mention magmar or whatever so-“

“Magmar is a Pokemon.”

“Ugh! Shut Up Logan! I can totally dig all the way to China!” Carlos hurled his tiny plastic shovel at Logan, who dodged and threw his tiny plastic bucket back at Carlos.

“No you can’t!” And this quickly devolved into Carlos and Logan getting into their usual slap fight.

“Guys, chill out,” Kendall called over his shoulder from his spot on the beach. “Come help me make James into The Little Mermaid.”

“What?! No, I’m supposed to be the sexiest merman ever!” James squawked indignantly but there’s not much he could do when Kendall had him covered in a big pile of sand from his toes to his neck.

“HAH! James is the prettiest princess of us all!” Carlos teased, outlining a tiara over James’s head which makes his wrist and arm in perfect biting range so naturally James snapped away at air trying to get at Carlos.

“I never liked The Little Mermaid movie,” Kendall said as he worked on shaping James’s tail. “She had to change who she was to be with the doofy Prince who only liked her because of her voice. Lame.” Logan reached over with a sandy hand and pinched him on the cheek.

“I like you just the way you are, Ken-dork,” Logan grinned and Kendall tried to get away from his hand, laughing.

“You guys are so gross with your squishy girl love,” James sighed, trying not to breathe too deeply and crack the sand over his chest. “ ‘ooooo Kennnnnduuulllll I love you and your stupid looking faaaaace’ ” Carlos cracked up before following the imitation with his own.

“ ‘Oooooo Looooogie, sometimes I wish I were Camille and could kiss you and your big giant brain all the tiiiime!’ Hahaha!“

“Whatever! At least we’re not like you guys!” Kendall jabbed James in the calf through the sand. “ ‘I’m soooo handsome bler bler bler the only way I know how to express what I’m really feeling for you Carlos _is by tackling and destroying objects with you_.’ “

“ ‘I’m the fun one who does crazy things and everyone loves me and one time I was a pretty _Jennifarlos_ so that maybe _my extensive knowledge of the fabrics of the world_ would impress my boyfriend guy.’ ” Logan added on poking at Carlos as he spoke.

“Shut up Logan!” Carlos slapped his hand away and shoved Logan hard so the laughing boy fell over into the sand.

“You two are just so emotionally stunted! You can’t even come out and say it!” Logan rolled in the sand laughing.

“Actions speak louder than words,” James scoffed and tried to look as condescending as someone lying under a whole bunch of sand in the shape of a mermaid can be. He wiggled his hand free from the depths of the sand and hooked pinky fingers with Carlos, which made him sit up straight and turn to look down at James in surprise before grinning and relaxing.

“How precious!” Kendall cooed mockingly and then stood up brushing off the sand from his jeans. “Let’s go down to the water and leave these two alone, hm?” He asked while pulling a still chuckling Logan up to his feet.

“Maybe we can call Oprah or Dr. Phil so they’ll learn that talking about their feelings isn’t a bad thing,” Logan teased pushing Carlos in the shoulder with sandy toes.

“Yeah, well, maybe we’ll call the, uh, Stupid Gooey Love Police and they’ll arrest you for being sappy boyfriends who are full of sap! The bad kind of sap! Not the good kind they make into maple syrup!” Carlos called after Kendall and Logan who had already gone down the beach and were rolling up their pant legs before getting to the wet tide sand. Carlos’s shoulders slumped a little in defeat that his awesome comeback had been swallowed up by crashing waves and empty night air.

James tugged on Carlos’s pinky with his own and when Carlos looked back down at him, James motioned with his head for Carlos to lay next to him. As Carlos burrowed down, James pushed the sand off his chest and torso, wiggling his legs and arms free, and they settled in next to each other, pinkies still hooked together, and stared at the big bright moon and dark night sky.

“Sometimes I hate it here,” Carlos whispered “You can’t see all the stars.”

“L.A. smog, it’s the price of being famous,” James said quietly back. They shared a quiet moment, listening to the waves and the tones of Kendall and Logan’s voices on the easy night breeze, not able to catch words.

“Do you really think we have to say it to mean it? To have it be real?” Carlos asked, leaving James confused for a moment before it dawned on him that he’s talking about the previous conversation. True to his words, James doesn’t say anything, he just sits up a little bit to lean over Carlos, they share one simple gentle kiss, and James lays back down, unhooking their pinkies to hold Carlos’s whole hand in his own. “James…” Carlos said in a hushed voice, turning his cheek into the sand to look at him, but James just kept his sight steady on the sky.

“If you want me to, I’ll say it. As many times as you want. Once, twice, every day, every night, whatever. But you already know it, in there,” James lifted their intertwined hands and the back of his thumps once lightly over Carlos’s heart before resting there. “That’s what makes it real.”

Carlos took a moment to think about that. As stupid and excitable as he could be sometimes, and as shallow-sounding and fame-seeking as James could be sometimes, they both just always knew. That’s all that ever mattered and nothing anyone could say would make that different. Carlos smiled to himself, squeezed James’s hand, got it squeezed in return and relaxed back into the sand, continuing to pretend star gaze at the un-seeable stars.

\-------------

“What do you think they’re doing with their private time?” Kendall asked, wiggling his toes in the underwater sand and feeling it give easily.

“I’m not looking. For all we know they might have decided that sex on the beach is a novel idea,” Logan said, drawing geometric shapes in wet sand and watching the tide eat them away.

“Well now, someone’s big genius brain is rolling around in the gutter where it should always be,” Kendall grinned and flopped the big mound of sand that he’d gotten on top of his foot onto Logan’s octagon with a loud wet slapping noise.

“Sex on the beach is a terrible idea. Sand in bad places, the bacteria, risk of public indecency charges, the sand in bad places,” Logan listed off, shaking his head and trying to form the big muddy pile into a cone shape. “And my brain does live in the gutter. It has a P.O. Box that just doesn’t get checked much.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Sorry, took the metaphor one step too far. It means I have plenty of dirty thoughts all the time, but I just don’t say them often.”

“Oh. Well now you have to share these thoughts so we can show our big squishy girl love and not just talk about it.”

“I think the way we show our big squishy girl love is fine the way it is—Without major injuries and destruction,” Logan paused a moment before glancing up at Kendall. “Usually.”

“C’mooooon,” Kendall reached out to Logan, caught him by his front right belt loop and tugged the reluctant Logan over to him. “Tell meeee, you know you want to,” he said playfully, shaking Logan’s hips by tugging on his belt loops. “You can’t say no to me,” Kendall gave a soft laugh and their clonked foreheads together lightly, but Logan refused to look at him.

“I know, that’s half the problem,” Logan muttered, sliding his arms around Kendall’s waist for both comfort and balance—if Kendall was going to knock him off his feet, the boy was going down into this chilly water with him. “I’m just like this devoted puppy dog who follows you around. That’s what everyone thinks. Sure, they all know we have feelings for each other but you’re the leader who is defined by everything you are- great hockey player, best singer, savior of our group most of the time, all that stuff. You’re not known only as ‘Logan’s boyfriend.’”

Logan dropped his head to Kendall’s shoulder, keeping his face down. “The only thing people think when they look at me is ‘Kendall’s boyfriend’ and then ‘the brain’ but that’s it. While I love the title, it’s like I don’t exist outside of our relationship. That’s why I don’t feel the need to do any huge gushy schmoopy romantic gestures or anything, because even without those people just know that I’m totally stupid for you. I just want to be known as something else besides being your boyfriend.”

They stand there, feet in the cool Pacific Ocean water, radiated under the moonlight, quietly for a while.

“If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,” Kendall quoted in a sing-song voice to break the silence. Logan laughed, pushing slightly back to give Kendall’s chest a proper thump with his fist and telling him to shut up.

“Seriously, though, when have you ever cared about labels?” Kendall head butted Logan again softly. “ _You_ know what defines you and so do the important people in our lives. And call me selfish but I’m glad the first thing they think of is that we’re together. It lets them immediately remember how we’re a force to be reckoned with because we care about each other so we’d fight anyone tooth and nail to keep the other person safe.” Kendall wrapped his arms around Logan’s shoulders, pulling them together and placing a kiss to Logan’s temple.

“I don’t need public displays or grand gestures or anything. I already know you love me so if you want to do what you need to so you can feel like people will define you more accurately, go for it. … I’d love for you to do whatever you want with me behind closed doors, though.” Kendall gave a light bite to Logan’s neck and the boy twisted to try and get away with a laugh.

“Save it for the bedroom! We’ll see if you’re on the naughty list or the nice list.”

“Oooo, sounds kinky. Are we role playing? If you want to be defined as a doctor now I could help you get used to hearing ‘Doctor Mitchell’.”

“God no, then I’d get a Pavlovian response to it and I’m pretty sure hard-ons are a no-no when you’re at work.”

“Hm, well, actually you remember that time it was really hot out, you had that popsicle and while we were in the recording booth I was wearing that big sweater that hung down to my knees?”

“Stop there. I know where it’s going.”

“Oh good,” Kendall said, lowering his hold on Logan to around his chest and biceps, “Then you know where I’m going.”

“Kendall Knight if you throw me in this water so help me I will- AUGH!” Kendall hurled Logan and himself down into the cold Pacific Ocean before they quickly came up with Logan sputtering. “We’re going to get hypothermia and then pneumonia and die!”

“This secures my spot on the naughty list, right?” Kendall grinned from where he sat in the water and Logan splashed him before scrambling out of the water, Kendall following hot on his heels. Logan marched right up the beach to Carlos and James, leaning over James’ face and dripping water all over him.

“Logan, man, what the hell?!”

“We’re leaving, love birds, before the idiot and I get deathly ill,” Logan grumped, frowning down on James while Carlos snickered from his happily dry patch of sand.

“I resent that!” Kendall called and shook like a dog at Carlos and James’ feet, spraying water over all of them which caused each of them to shriek or give a manly yell. “Okay, I’m dry,” Kendall smiled at his friends while they tried to wipe away the offending cold droplets, “Homeward bound now, hm?”

They all piled back into the car, returned to 2J, Logan and Kendall showered away any chance of hypothermia, Carlos and James showered away any lingering sand, and they all went happily to sleep.

\---------

Mrs. Knight shuffled out of her room very early Christmas Day, intent on making coffee and a nice Christmas breakfast for everyone but to her surprise there was a boy pile in the middle of the living room. She smiled to herself then got them each a quilt, covering them up as they lay sprawled on top and intertwined with each other. With a kiss to each forehead she whispered softly,

_“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”_


End file.
